Why We Carry Guns: Dust-up at Disneyland and Other Random Acts of Violence

Trouble can happen anywhere at any time. That’s why millions of Americans have carry licenses and tote a firearm every day. Ironically, non-permissive environments quite often serve as the locations in which people most need to carry.

Take, for instance, Disneyland in Anaheim, California. A recent incident at Mickey’s West Coast theme park shows that dangerous situations don’t have any regard for signs, prohibitions or laws.

Of course, gun possession at California’s Disneyland is strictly prohibited. What does this mean? It means there are no good guys with guns to stop bad people with evil in their hearts.

Not only that, but the state of California has some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws including gun bans, a ban on private gun sales, waiting periods for new purchases, licensing, magazine capacity limits, red flag laws, may issue carry…the list goes on and on.

All of that strict gun control serves as but a small price to pay for ensuring the crime-free utopia which Golden State lawmakers have created.

A crime-free utopia like this one at Disneyland.

At Disneyland, instead of everyday good guy Americans with guns who can put an end to violent chaos or employees equipped to issue more than a stern look, Disney hires retirees and others who are ill-suited to do much of anything other than providing directions to the nearest restroom.

Screencap via YouTube.

Watch the “security” guard above employ the Scot Peterson response to a violent incident. He walks away from good Samaritans trying to stop an out of control, muscular bad actor from beating a much weaker woman into unconsciousness.

Because if your family finds itself in danger from bad, violent people, many of us want more than a couple of unarmed septuagenarians (below) to stand (or not) between our loved ones and violent criminals.

Screencap via YouTube.

Let’s be clear, the video above shows a scene where deadly force was likely not justified. However, like many, I carry everywhere I possibly can, because if a big guy like the one in red starts pummeling my wife because he didn’t like the color of her shirt or that she accidentally ran over his big toe with a stroller, the situation might call for something more than a stern word to dissuade the bad guy’s violent behavior.

Like most of America’s sheepdogs, I would rather not rely on the cop who is five, ten or thirty minutes away or the poorly-paid, ill-trained, retiree security guard to come to my rescue. (No offense to the retired guys and gals working security across America every day.)

I also carry in case an unbalanced lunatic tries to snatch one of my infant sons and throw him to the ground…

Or take off with one of them.

Or snatching one at random and threatening them with a knife…

These are several reasons why I endeavor to maintain situational awareness. And why I carry a gun for those times when paying attention to my surroundings fails to identify and let me avoid a problem.

Imagine if that was your spouse or kid (or grandchild) in the videos above.

comments

Not that the general point about victim disarmament zones is invalid, but I read elsewhere that the specific incident discussed was all within a family, so more like public domestic violence, and that the family clammed up and was uncooperative with police afterward. Exactly the type of situation many police hate with a passion. Personally, I wouldn’t want to get involved in something like that if there was any other choice.

Looks to me like a family fight. It’s mostly the women who are involved, with a scattering of men hitting their women. The men walk away but are drawn back in by what the women do…again. All of the “unconscious” women got up to re-enter the brawl. If it were serious some of the men would be dead or in the hospital.

This recent Disneyland incident, which started as a brother and sister squabble is not a good example about why we need to be armed in Disneyland. This is Disneylands prob. Using sensationalism as clickbait was a poor TTAG decision. If I was at this incident, after a quick assessment, I’d just get my kids away from the train wreck and visit Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.

Yeah, I have to agree with you on this. I’ve been a bit disappointed with the choice of articles TTAG’s been posting lately. I *really* don’t care about the useless EDC pocket dumps, and many of the other articles contain poorly researched info or haphazard opinions by the authors.

It’s like when Zerohedge posts something questionable, and the commenters say “C’mon, Tylers…”

They no longer have the people to produce content. They went with Farago, along with basic integrity and honesty.
Welcome to the new, leaner, and more profitable TTAG! Where the ‘articles’ are just press releases from a manufacturer, “sponsored content”, or clickbait culled from other sites. When clickbait and reposts are your business model, no return to honesty is possible. The ‘producers’ are now kept far too busy chasing sponsors, to actually have the time to produce anything of value.
The only value this site has now is its comment section, which they are attempting to load up with Vlads and Lnychs ASAP. Its only other value now is as the butt of a joke about how quickly and thoroughly fools can destroy a thing.
A: Pretty fast. Just a few years.

Still an upgrade from when TTAG used to post articles about “i’m a woman and I carry” by some hack of a writer every other day, and then would try and delete the comments calling out how stupid and awful every article written by her was.

I don’t see this as “Disneylands[sic] prob.”
Disneyland didn’t ask them to fight there. They did that all on their own. It’s a problem within that family, not with Disneyland. That just happens to be the place that family decided to get violent.
Let’s call it what it is. That family has problems. They brought those problems to Disneyland, not the other way around. Sooner or later, there will be a real problem in that family, if there hasn’t been already.
No, it’s definitely not Disneyland’s problem. What IS Disneyland’s problem is how long it took them to get some serious security to the scene. That big guy was seriously in a seriously violent mood, and anyone trying to help an innocent person out could have been seriously injured.

Serious because what we saw in the video is a predator attacking his prey.
Just because it happened to be his SO and (apparently) her mother that he attacked in a vicious manner, knocking then both to the ground, at Disneyland, doesn’t mean such a man will stick to his family.
He must be such a wonderful person to be around. He demonstrated his willingness to attack, repeatedly, two women with no regard to the fact that he was being videoed.
That’s serious. He is the type of person who really should be required to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Family violence it the type of call the police fear the most. Not only will the aggressor often attack anyone who attempts to stop the violence, but the victim will sometimes attack the police for arresting the attacker.
It’s serious.

Probably a good idea to stay away from trashy places like Disney, which are full of trashy people. Disney a “progressive” corporation run by liberals who want all guns banned. Pure Garbage. They don’t need any more money to fund the gun ban machine.

Disneyland security it notoriously inconsistent. Some days getting into the park I’ve got the full terrorist treatment. Metal detector, wand, pat down…. Other times l’ve gone right through the gate without even a look. All the while my knife was stashed under the applesauce in my bag.

Spitting on someone is assault and battery, then escalated quickly. There are 2 other ways this could have gone. First, after the assault, pink T-shirt guy could have walked away and ended the confrontation. Second, after being stuck by the guy in the white T-shirt, the presentation of a weapon would have hopefully ended it without further violence, or if the guy in the white T-shirt could have continued and ended up in a morgue. Why people can’t leave each other alone is beyond me. And all this in front of young children. Disney is a gun free zone, so I would never have been there in the first place.

The Disney episode is a classic strawman example. This was an internal domestic dispute, no one ran over someone else’s toe with a stroller, that’s make-believe.

As all LEO’s recognize, getting in the middle of a domestic dispute can be hazardous to your health.

And for a civilian to interfere in a domestic dispute, without the benefit of a badge and authority, is foolhardy. Sounds like someone is just looking for the opportunity to be a good guy with a gun and a hero. Much better to let the authorities handle the problem.

Calling it “an internal domestic dispute,” while accurate, does not mean it wouldn’t quickly escalate. All someone had to do was say something like, “Hey, there are children here,” and that seriously out of control very big guy could have done some serious harm to someone who wasn’t in his family.
Call it what it was: A violent fight. That it was a domestic dispute doesn’t make it any less violent. And it most certainly doesn’t make it any less of a serious problem.

i just watched the video on the news, this is a very good case for extreme voltage for all concerned.the thomas electric rifle, taser is the remidy for this kind of dust-up. but , disney wants everybody un-armed and helpless.

Carry at an amusement park can be challenging. Disney’s rides are mostly tame, but other parks’ rides push you up, down, forwards, backwards, and side-to-side, and upside-down. Even with a proper holster system to keep the gun in place, smashing a chunk of metal between you and the equipment isn’t going to feel good. A water park would be even harder.

Not to mention that amusement parks are typically crowded, so the risk of collateral damage is high. It’d be best to rely on unarmed tactics (situational awareness, avoid confrontation, verbal de-escalation, hand-to-hand combat, etc). A gun is a tool and, like all tools, is not always suitable for every situation.

Heck, I live here and went to Disneyland countless times since my childhood days until about ten years ago, when I brought my own kids. The park was so unbelievably crowded, there were actually uniformed employees directing foot traffic between the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse (now called Tarzan’s I think) all the way past Pirate of the Caribbean to the Haunted Mansion. I stopped for a moment to look behind me and make sure my wife and kids were still with me, and an employee barked at me to keep moving. He said no stopping allowed. That’s when you know the park has exceeded their capacity and allowed too many people to enter at the front gates.

Too many foreigners clogging the park. Barely heard English spoken that day.

And that was my last day. I’ll never go back again. The Happiest Place On Earth from my childhood died long ago and was replaced by the lifeless Corporate Mouse.

“I stopped for a moment to look behind me and make sure my wife and kids were still with me, and an employee barked at me to keep moving. He said no stopping allowed. That’s when you know the park has exceeded their capacity and allowed too many people to enter at the front gates.”

Saw it like that once back in the late 70’s. Was never a fan after that. Did Florida Disney a couple times with my kids when they were little, but fortunately in their mid teens they came to prefer nature. No grand kids (hopefully not for a while), but I’ll be taking them camping, hiking, or fishing instead.

Perhaps the solution is to train in multiple forms of self defense and not just firearms so in the event you choose to not have your firearms on your person for the reasons above, you can do so with some peace of mind.

Or if you absolutely choose not to be separated from your firearm under whatever circumstance, then man up to discomfort.

To the average person agnostic on guns, educating them on how existing gun laws are not enforced in any meaningful way is a very powerful argument for getting them off the fence to oppose additional gun control laws.

Reading is, indeed, fundamental. So, when you wrote, “Which is why enforcing existing laws rather than enacting new restrictions on gun ownership is the best way to further reduce violent crime in this country,” I took you at your word IN PLAIN ENGLISH.

You literally stated that the best way to further reduce violent crime in this country is enforcing existing laws. THAT is supporting gun control. Existing laws include gun control at present. No doubt you could also mean only other laws and not gun control but you did not specify.

Smart ass answers don’t negate the plain meaning of what you wrote.

If you would like to clarify here and now, I would love to read it and offer a clear and unequivocal public apology to you. John Boch, do you support any gun control laws?

*Your last reply does not clearly state that you do not support any gun control laws. “Note I didn’t say how I supported existing gun control.”

Pretty typical behavior only worth noting because it happened in “Toontown” and grossly violated the facade of security theater. They don’t see what they did as wrong (no charges filed), so charging in with a gun would instantly make you a criminal stranger attacking a family unit. Don’t get involved and let the authorities with sovereign immunity handle these weird domestic disputes that may not even be a crime. Some things are just part and parcel of living in a multicultural society.

The more important discussion that should be addressed is how the rules of the sheepdog concept have changed. When a percentage of the sheep are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing, the sheepdog should adapt and be more discerning on which sheep are, in fact, sheep and worth saving.

The premise of being a sheepdog, elevating yourself above the sheep to protect the sheep, is just a rehash of obsolete Western knight-errantry warrior culture. Folks need to remember a real knight in shining armor on a white horse was an agent of a Western Christian feudal state and was granted sovereign immunity. That system no longer exists and we are not allowed to be those type of people anymore. These “damsels in distress” wouldn’t understand the cultural reference even while in a castle theme park. Let the professionals handle it.

Knights in armor WERE “the professionals” in any feudal culture, whether Western, Christian, or otherwise. What is different in a free society is that the technological capability of armed defense isn’t restricted to government-owned “professionals”.

At least Disney tries to enforce their no gun zone. Unlike many places that post a sign but do nothing to enforce the ban.
They should be sued if someone is shot in their gun free zone and their is no enforcement of said zone.
That might end the gun free zone nonsense.

Hey 40whiner, sure you can find incidence of white people acting like that but the majority of it is done by the black folks. Just like you can find some Republicans that support gun control but the majority of them are Democrats. Pointing out the obvious doesn’t make somebody a racist you turd.

smh. looks like he beat up his mom, his sister and his sister in law.
toxic masculinity and all that.
but he pays for the extensions, so what to do?
popcorn.
this article was a good reiteration of “why we;” the chosen video was is a poor representation of such.
definitely not why i do.

To be fair, Disneyland (and theme parks in general) might be one of the few places where it makes sense to go ahead and follow that “gun free zone” rule, depending on the rides you plan to be on. Not because of leftist irrational fear, but because a handgun is the last thing I want flying off my person when I’m on a roller coaster.
Of course, that would mean the park would be obligated to hire competent security (god knows they can afford it, for the prices you’re going to pay at Disneyland) but that would make too much sense for Califonia.

Disney and security was in a bad situation. LE has layers of immunity but security doesn’t. If they do ANYTHING you know damn well everybody and their second cousin once removed will be looking for a payday with some lawyer. Absent weapons, it was handled as it should have been, although a little sooner than it did. As it was, some some men stepped in and handled the suspect which unsurprisingly cooled his jets.
The old security guard is nothing but a show piece. It’s really too bad somebody with formal training didn’t notice the suspect had almost no skills, only his color and size. As far as actual skills…he had NOTHING.
People stood around like punching bags.

I live in CA, and I can tell you. The Criminals call the shots here. In my town, they have even gotten onto the city council. I’m not speaking hyperbolically, they are former and likely current gang members who simply grew older and ran for office and won on the gang vote.

i.e. The gangs gave the local illegal aliens, or undocumented citizens, or whatever they’re called this month, the privilege of voting (yes, i know they never do that cause cnn tells us so, but news flash, they do….alot) for their former buds.

California is a state on the edge of immanent collapse. Soon as the tech companies finish their moves to texas, the often touted 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th (depending on which talking head is talking) largest economy in the world, will all of a sudden be in receivership.

That kind of behavior kept me employed until I retired. Been there, seen that, got a thousand T-shirts. As for carrying in the Land of the Big Mouse. Done it lots of times. After all Disney World is not far down the road and I had children. Still do, they’re just adults now. Used to call my P7M8 my Disney World pistol. First carried in a DeSantis butt pack. Later a Galco. Butt packs were fashionable then. Still don’t attract any attention. Unless they’re black and especially if they’re leather. Those scream GUN!! to LEO and bad guy alike. Last time I went to Disney they had begun checking bags, but no magnetometers. I had just acquired a Glock 36 and installed Heinie Pro-Slant Straight 8 sights. I ducked into a restroom and went into a stall. Glock went into Mexican carry. Magazine L/F pocket. Unclipped Bechmade Emerson CQB from R/F pocket and dropped it in. Walked through security checkpoint with no problem. The kid might have been 19 and projected about as much authority as my sister’s lap dog. Once in the park I dipped into another restroom and reversed the process. Spent the day in the park and never went back.

I recently went into a place where guns turned out not to be allowed. The secondary security was wanding people. I was stuck. I literally just held my G42 in my hand with my phone, phone facing out. I held my hands up high in the surrender position. They wanded from my elbows to my boots (I’m not short), never looked up, and sent me on through. Theater.

I visited Seaworld San Diego this year. Before entering the park, they had me empty my pockets and hold the contents in my hands, because they did not have any tray/bins out. I walk thought the CEIA, it goes off, they wand me, except the stuff in my hands and let me go in. I actually had a 3″ folder in my hands, but I could have had a Derringer. All the expensive tech, but Seaworld Security had poor procedures at the time.

“Let’s be clear, the video above shows a scene where deadly force was likely not justified…”

There are multiple spots in that video where it was justified all day long if you watched the entire thing. Big dude wailing on anybody is more than enough to do so. Now whether or not it was wise is a different story given either party could have disengaged at any point, but the moment mister 400lbs comes after you is the moment you should have a gun out, hoping you made all the right decisions before you got to that point.

Another stereotype confirmed.
This is why theme parks and malls are dying out. The people with money to spend won’t go to these jungles.
Makes the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies look like historical docudramas.

Funny.
I recall the time the family was standing around outside in the summer heat to watch a juvenile “High School Musical” rendition. Instead of chimping out and causing a scene I discreetly wandered off alone to find an air-conditioned chair in Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. Better to be bored senseless and take a nap in comfort than wander around all pissy and hot making everyone within sight miserabe.
I suppose that’s the difference between civilized people and those who ain’t.

Commiefornia can be proud of the low life utopia they have created,just wait till the different diseases play in to the mix,will it be like the influenza epidemic of 1917 or more like the plague of the dark age.

Ain’t so much a Kookafornia issue. People are ill-mannered and nasty everywhere.
Where I live in Jersey Six Flags attracts them like flies. One of my boys was a summer hire just doing his job keeping his ride orderly when a typical Dindu Thuggins pushed his way to the front. When Dindu was challenged it hurt his pride, so he decided to press the issue with my son by pushing him with his chest. It was an attempt to cow him and challenge him at the same time. It didn’t go over well.
My boy let Dindu and Krew pass without incident, then proceeded to lock their asses down in the safety restraints. While the ride was stalled, they sat things out until security arrived to escort them out.
Did they learn their lesson? Who cares? It was a good example of quick thinking and using your brain, no gunms or violence needed.

Self perpetuated poverty by a race of people who have kids with no jobs, no education, no home, no husband or wife and raise those kids in communities where the only thing that is valued is NBA2k and rap music. This video sums up perfectly why this group of people simply cannot function in this society!

I think this would be a wonderful opportunity to pause for a moment and give thanks for the great contributions of the black community to our society. Their peaceful and generous nature make them ideal neighbors, lending testimony to their exceptional family values and parenting skills unrivaled by any other culture. Their commitment to academic excellence enriches our schools and serves as an example to all who hope to achieve prominence as a people. Real estate values are fueled by the mix of African Americans into an area due to their caring and respectful nature of these communities, an example of all they have achieved through their enthusiasm for self- improvement by hard work, dedication, and a self-reliant can-do nature. Without their industrious and creative drive, we would be poorer as a nation.

So if I found it funny, but I’m not racist, does that mean I’m going to hell?

Truth be told, there is no difference between them and us, the reason they are downtrodden is because the Democrats keep pushing free stuff on them. Teach a man to fish and all that. You can see it in every group there is, make them earn a living, and they start living.

Deadly Force not appropriate. Really. I wonder as to when and where, in what circumstances it might be. I refer to the depiction of a grown man punching a woman, or at least a person who appeared female.

It’s Disney, the happiest place on earth. And it’s California, the most f..ked up place on earth. Mathematically those things should cancel each other out. Who are the zeroes!?
The dumbasses fighting in public or whoever it was that videoed this crap and put it on the internet. Just sayin. Someone needs their ass beat. AGAIN, just sayin

if law enforcement had this video – they did NOT do their jobs! They all should have been arrested on assault charges and convicted. That would have prevented them from legaling possessing a firearm. I do not not believe someone like them would allow any of us to feel safe if they were in possession of firearms. Another failure by all you anti gun callis!

Disney is staunchly ant gun…except when they use them in their movies to help make hundreds of millions of dollars.
Disney denies us a safe environment through their “Gun Free Zone” policies at their properties.
Disney employs inadequate security resources to respond to any number of dangerous situations.
Disney has local LE on site (at whose expense?) but again, in insufficient numbers.
Disney’s incredibly costly parks are an affront to the very families they claim to entertain but cannot access the properties for lack of economic ability or they go into debt for years to provide their children with the “joy” of “experiencing” their parks.

The officer should NOT have tried to negotiate. With the knife in the hand endangering the child, there is no way to prevent the kidnapper from killing the child if he decides to…as long as he is alive with the knife in his hand, the baby could be instantly dead. Bullet to the frontal lobe ends it NOW! It took WAY too long with too much risk to the child, to get to the bullet-to-the-head point!

What a beautiful display of African American Sign Language! Truly, Disney has progressed beyond the stale pale males of yesteryear. Well, except the pale males from a tribe that Walt himself despised. We need them to turn a profit!

Welcome to life in the U.S. were the law of the jungle seems to rule. A place as big as Disney world certainly could afford to hire more armed security personal but in Capitalvania life is cheap and saving money with less guards is considered good business practice.